1. Field
The following description relates to a link group-based communication system that efficiently reduces power, and more particularly, to a technique for reducing power in a link group-based communication system which logically groups a plurality of links in order to a logical link with a bandwidth greater than an individual link bandwidth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, switches, routers, and servers employ a link group-based communication system which generates a link group of a plurality of physical links to logically operate the link group as a single link.
Typically, in Ethernet, a logical link of several gigabits of bandwidth is generated by grouping multiple gigabit Ethernet interfaces using standard link aggregation. In addition to the Ethernet, in interfaces, for example, packet over SONET (PoS), a logic interface with a high bandwidth may be formed through logical link group generation.
By generating such a link group, traffic toward the link group can be evenly distributed to all member links so that the links can process traffic greater than an individual link bandwidth. However, the above method uses all links even when the amount of traffic is small, thereby wasting system resources or power.